Staff at Portsmouth elder facilities test positive for COVID-19

Elizabeth Dinan edinan@seacoastonline.com @DinanElizabeth

Wednesday

May 6, 2020 at 2:35 PM

PORTSMOUTH -- Three staff members at two Portsmouth nursing homes/assisted living facilities recently tested positive for COVID-19, as part of an ongoing process to test staff and residents, said city Health Agent Kim McNamara.

The testing was recently made available to congregate living facilities with senior populations and the results, said McNamara, are being returned "in batches." She said many results remain pending.

McNamara declined to cite which senior living facilities had staff that tested positive, while lauding them for the proactive screening and safe protocols in response to early results.

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities across the nation have been the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic. During a Wednesday press conference, Gov. Chris Sununu’s healthcare team announced 19 new COVID-19 deaths, all connected to longterm care facilities. Sununu also announced a new plan to provide increased random testing at all of these "ground zero hotbeds" in the coming weeks.

New Hampshire has reported 473 positive tests for COVID-19, including 266 among staff, in 16 long-term care and assisted living facilities as of May 4. None of the state identified cases were in Portsmouth.

McNamara said Portsmouth congregate senior-living homes "have been highly proactive and vigilant to protect their residents since early March," by taking advantage of the state-run testing program and responding to the batch-release results. At long-term care facilities where staff tested positive, she said, "immediate steps have been taken by those facilities to ensure no positive staff return to work."

"The vast majority of results are negative," said the Portsmouth health agent. "However, despite these extraordinary precautions, a few staff have tested positive, which unfortunately is a concern and outcome when ongoing community transmission is occurring."

McNamara said scheduling for testing residents of the homes, as a follow up, is ongoing. She said the testing is to obtain as much information as possible, so if and when staff test positive, they are sent home and residents can be isolated.

"I just want to emphasize their competence and all of the hard work they have done in context," McNamara said. "These results are due to the situation we are in as a whole community and is in no way a reflection on the facilities, which have been outstanding."

The Portsmouth health agent also reminded that, for other populations, there are now fixed location testing centers, the closest to Portsmouth being at the National Guard armory in Rochester.

"Managing this is a process, and tests are only a snapshot of a point in time," McNamara said. "This situation can change quickly."

The state Department of Health and Human Service partnered with ConvenientMD to provide telehealth screening and COVID-19 testing for people regardless of insurance status, as well as two mobile teams that were deployed to test staff at long-term care facilities in Rockingham and Hillsborough counties.

Uninsured residents can call 2-1-1 for more information.

Any resident experiencing COVID-19 symptoms who has barriers to accessing one of five testing sites, can access testing through the Visiting Nurses Association. VNA clinical staff assist patients in their homes and will arrange specimen collection and transport to a testing laboratory.

For most people who contract the virus, it causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, that clear in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with underlying health conditions, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

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